


The Apple

by chuusei_teki_na_koe



Category: Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga
Genre: M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-03
Updated: 2019-02-03
Packaged: 2019-10-21 13:09:00
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17643428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chuusei_teki_na_koe/pseuds/chuusei_teki_na_koe
Summary: Before Sera's arrival changed everything, Serph had never thought about sex—he's fairly sure none of them had. Now, suddenly, his mind is full of Heat, Heat, Heat. And he wants to know what this is.[Heat/Serph smut with a side dish of mild Serph/Sera and hinted Heat/Sera]





	The Apple

**Author's Note:**

> This is actually based off the Quantum Devil Saga novels, which are fairly similar to the games, but with some differences. You can read this just fine if you've only played the games—just think of it as somewhat AU. Serph talks more, haha. 
> 
> (The Quantum Devil Saga novels are great, btw, and the first 2 books are available in English. Highly recommended.)
> 
> Also, I've been reading the books in Japanese, so forgive any term inconsistencies. I'm working off my memory of having played DDS like 10 years ago.

 

Serph never thought about it at all, before.

In the Junkyard, sexual desire had been simply another need to fulfill, like eating and sleeping. He'd rubbed a quick one out before bed many times, mechanically, not really thinking of anything. It was advised to do this to aid with sleep, after all. He'd never even imagined getting someone else to do it for him—that would have been like getting someone to feed him or bathe him, and he had never been too injured to do that himself.

So when Serph lay down on his bunk around shade time, not long after their clash with the Vanguards and Sera's appearance, to do his business as usual, he was surprised to find himself thinking anything at all. Or thinking of someone.

He stopped, sat up, and put his hand to his chest. His heart rate was elevated, which was normal for this sort of activity, but it didn't feel the same.

It wasn't unusual for him to be thinking about Heat. He was Serph's right-hand man, after all, and a valuable member of Embryon, his strongest fighter. It was imperative that he know Heat well so that he could use him effectively in combat. And they had, in fact, known each other for many years. Heat had been the one constant in Serph's life, ever since they had first emerged from the church as newbies. Heat was strong and competent, generally taciturn, and proud. In raw physical strength, he surpassed Serph, his rough, masculine frame trained over years of battle. Serph had seen him nude dozens of times before, during bathing hours, but now, suddenly, those memories felt different, as if he was only really seeing them now. His mind showed him the lines of Heat's muscular back, the drip of water down his skin, his tight ass as he faced away from Serph in the showers.

Serph wasn't even touching himself anymore, but he was hard.

Of course this had happened before, as a pure physical reaction. Sometimes, when he leaned on his leg just so, it would cut the blood off for a moment and he would have to wait for the erection to pass. But this was different. _Everything_ had felt different, lately.

Serph abandoned himself to instinct. He imagined Heat, naked, turning around to face him, smirking a little, his cock every bit as hard as Serph's was right now. _“You want this?_ ” Heat would say, and Serph would fall to his knees and—

Serph didn't even get that far. He came with a shudder, faster than he ever had before, the moment he thought of the touch of Heat's skin.

Panting, he looked down at his sticky hand.

He didn't understand it.

But he wanted it.

x x x

For some reason, even after that first time, the thoughts continued. What was the point of thinking about someone when they weren't around?

Maybe it was because of the changes in Heat. His antagonism had brought forth something new in Serph. Serph had lost something, yes—he'd lost the sense of ease that came with knowing someone. But so much more had replaced it, and he couldn't quite pick it all apart.

Serph found himself following Heat with his eyes, noticing trivial details that he'd never really thought of before, like the fall of his blood-red hair, the way he walked, his habit of standing apart from the others and leaning against walls or door frames.

He noticed the way Heat's eyes flashed, the moments he disappeared, and the smell of flesh and blood on his breath when he returned.

Heat noticed his gaze, but never said anything in return.

Serph was the one act, to catch him in the hallway at the base right around the time light time turned to shade time. “Heat,” he said, and Heat stopped and turned around to face him. “I want to talk.”

“We just had a strategy meeting,” Heat countered, frowning.

“Not about strategy.” Serph shook his head. “I just want to talk to you.”

“About what?”

“About...” Serph had a lot of thoughts in his head, but it was somehow difficult to put them into words. “...how things have changed. Since Sera's come.”

“Things haven't changed. Not really.” Heat shook his head. “Is that all?” He turned around, and started walking away.

“Listen!” Why was it so hard to talk to Heat, now? Every exchange they had was rippling with hostility that hadn't been there before. Serph grabbed him by the arm, pulled him around.

Heat's arm instantly turned red, thickening. Serph's palm hissed against his skin, sizzling. The brand on his cheek flashed and his own arm changed too, squeezing harder around Agni's red hide, bristling with frost until steam rose between them.

“Do you think of me, now?” Serph said. It was a simple question, but now that it was out of his mouth, it felt strange, like he shouldn't have asked it.

“What?” Heat turned around halfway to look at Serph.

“Do you think about me, ever?” Serph repeated, keeping a firm grip on Heat's arm. Heat could rip away from him, if he wanted. He was strong enough. But he didn't.

“What kind of question is that? What does it matter?”

“I think about you,” Serph said. He licked his lips, considered his words. Tried to figure out what it was he wanted to say. “I want to know more about you.”

“What are you talking about? You've known me for years. We know each other.”

Serph's hand slid down from Heat's wrist to his hand—Agni's hand, his own hardened fingers running over the ridges, learning them. “I don't think I've ever really known you.” He paused. “I want to _know_ you.”

Heat looked down at their hands, the comical sight of those monstrous appendages used for killing now...doing what? Serph was stroking the back of Heat's hand with his thumb.

Flame blazed in Heat's palm and on his cheeks as he flung Serph's hand away, then spun around, cape fluttering behind him. “Stop talking nonsense,” was all he said, anger clear in his voice.

Serph didn't understand why something like this would make him so angry.

x x x

“I wanted to talk to you.”

Serph found Sera, as she often was, on the roof of Embryon's base. Since they had talked Gale out of locking her up, she was allowed a degree of freedom, and she seemed to like this spot. Of course, she was being watched, but Serph made sure her guards weren't too intrusive. They were down below, watching from a distance. If she was to ever go outside of the building, generally, Cielo would be with her, if he wasn't busy elsewhere.

Sera jumped a little when he approached. It seemed she'd been sitting on her knees on the cold concrete, staring off into the distance. She had some odds and ends scattered about her—a pile of rocks and concrete bits stacked into an unstable tower of about knee-height, and some pieces of wire she'd twisted into various shapes.

“What's this?” Serph asked, reaching down to pick up one of the wire bits. It was twisted into a shape that had two bulges on one end, and a point on the other. He sat down next to her.

“Oh, that's—I've just been fiddling,” she said. “I ended up making a bunch of hearts. I guess just because they're easy.”

Serph examined the shape he held. “Hearts?” It didn't look much like one. He'd seen a few of them, usually after someone was blown open by explosives.

“It's just a shape. Like a symbol.” Sera picked another piece of wire off the ground and began bending it in her fingers. “It means love.”

“Love?”

Sera blinked at him. She had to be used to questions like this by now, though, as she quickly recovered and told him, “It's a feeling you get for your friends, or family, or your lover. You feel like you want to be close to them, and you want them to be happy.”

“Friends? Family? ...Lover?”

Sera breathed out a long breath. “Your family is the people who you live with, as a cooperative group. Your friends are anyone else you care about. Your lover is someone very special to you.”

This was a lot of new information. Serph wasn't quite sure about what any of it meant.

“So then Embryon is my family?” he asked.

Sera seemed pensive for a moment, then nodded. “If you think of them as your family, then they are.”

This seemed like a rather meaningless word, if anyone you thought counted as that thing was that thing.

“What's the difference between friends and family?” Serph asked her.

“Well...” Sera tilted her head. “Usually, your family is the people who are blood related to you. Your parents and your siblings, and your grandparents and children and aunts and uncles and cousins...oh, but your lover can be your family, too.”

Serph pressed a finger against his forehead. This was a little too much at once, and frankly, it all seemed to mean the same thing. None of it made any sense. He would have to mentally sort this out, later. But he still had one more question. “What's the difference between a friend and a lover?”

Sera paused, then her cheeks went a little red, and she looked down at her lap. “A lover is someone you have a more intimate relationship with.”

“Intimate?”

Sera raised her head, looking straight at him, and the redness in her cheeks deepened. “Like...a sexual relationship.”

Serph just gave her a questioning look.

“You don't, um...” Sera looked down again, fidgeting with her hands. She seemed...uncomfortable?

“It's fine if you don't want to talk about this,” Serph said. He didn't want to upset her, especially over something trivial like this. This was really only...well, he didn't know why he was asking her this, really, other than that he wanted to know. That didn't seem like a good enough reason.

Sera suddenly giggled, covering her mouth with her hand. “It's just a little embarrassing, and funny to think you don't know. You seem so mature and controlled, but you're a virgin, huh?” When Serph gave her another questioning look, she cleared her throat and answered, “it means someone who has never had sex. Um...sex is...” she blushed deeply, but seemed determined to continue. “...An expression of intimacy. You, um....get really close with your partner, and, um...make them feel good, physically.”

Serph absorbed what she had just said. “I think...I understand what you mean,” he said, finally, turning his gaze off into the grey sky, eyes following the flashes of green there. He didn't understand Sera's discomfort about this, but he did have a sense that this wasn't something that you should be discussing in depth. And for some reason, he didn't really want to tell her about the thoughts he'd been having. He wanted to keep them to himself.

But still, his newfound sense of privacy warred with his desire to know. “So how does someone become your lover?” he asked, fiddling absently with the wire heart in his fingers.

“Well, you could just ask.”

Serph looked at her.

“If you really like someone,” Sera began, eyes flicking downward, and there was a wistful tone to her voice, somehow, “then you confess your feelings. And if they return those feelings, then you become lovers. And maybe...you'll kiss.”

“Kiss?” Serph was beginning to feel a little foolish, asking all these one-word questions.

Sera looked up at him again. “You...touch lips.”

Serph considered for a moment, then leaned over and briefly pressed his lips to hers, laying the hand that held the wire heart against the cold concrete, then leaving it there beside Sera when he pulled away. “Like that?”

Sera was staring at him, face bright red, fingers fumbling in the skirt of the combat suit Cielo had found for her. “Yes...like that. But...you shouldn't do it with someone you don't like.” Something about the way she said that sounded sad.

“How do you know if you like someone?”

A ghost of a smile crossed her face. “You'll know.” She handed him the new wire heart she'd made, and Serph took it.

x x x

Talking with Sera had raised more questions than it had answers. All Serph understood now was that there was a whole world of things he didn't understand. Or maybe all those things Sera spoke of, friends and family and lovers and whatnot, were from her world, from Nirvana. If Serph got there, would he have those things? The way Sera spoke of them, it sounded like they were good things to have. And despite not really understanding what any of it was, Serph found himself with that same, indescribable longing for it that he had for Nirvana.

His dreams—he knew they were dreams, now, thanks to Sera—were filled with so many things he found himself longing for. For dead comrades, for blue skies, for the paradise they had all been promised. All of it was out of his reach—at least, it was right now.

The one thing that was within his reach was Heat. And Serph would reach out and take what he desired.

“Heat,” he said, stopping the other man in the strategy room after a meeting one particular cycle. “I want to—”

“Talk? Again?” Heat interrupted him. He shook his head, and turned to go.

“No,” Serph said, and he grabbed Heat's shoulder, pulled him around and stepped forward to press his lips to Heat's.

Heat's lips were warmer than Sera's had been, not as soft, and slightly chapped. Heat froze under his touch, then after a moment, shoved Serph away, sending him stumbling backward. Threatening reds rippled under Heat's skin, brand on his arm flashing, as he stared at Serph, then licked his lips. “What?” was all he said, his eyes wide.

It had to be the first time Serph had ever seen him so stunned.

But that expression melted away quickly, turning to anger as Heat stepped toward him, shoving him toward the wall. He didn't say anything. He just pushed Serph's shoulders against the bare concrete and glared at him with an anger that made no sense to Serph, but it did something to him, anyway. Serph's eyes were locked on Heat's lips, his mind on the tight grip of Heat's hands on his shoulders. He could feel their heat through his combat suit, and he wanted nothing more than to feel them directly on his skin.

It took Serph a moment to realize that Heat was just at a loss for words.

“Kiss me,” Serph commanded him, and that just seemed to make Heat angrier.

“What? What's that?! What do you want from me?!” Heat kicked the wall at Serph's side, the Asura strength that went into his kick chipping off concrete bits. This close, Serph could smell the flesh on his breath, and it made him hungry, but it also made him hard. “You won't leave me alone! You're everywhere! And you smell like _her!_ ” Heat leaned in close to his face as if he were sniffing Serph's breath. “You smell like her blood.”

“Do you want it?” Serph murmured.

“ _No!_ ” Heat snapped down at the floor, and for some reason, Serph felt he was lying. Heat had never lied to him before. Had he?

“Do you want mine?”

“What?” Heat's head jerked up, and he looked into Serph's eyes.

Serph licked his lips. This was nonsense, and he knew it. It wasn't like his blood had special properties, like Sera's did. He was just going with his gut, the same impulsive urge that was making his cock press against the inside of his combat suit. “If you want my blood, then take it from my lips. Bite me,” he said, and before he'd even finished speaking, Heat dove in to his mouth and bit down hard on his lower lip, sinking his teeth in and sucking.

Serph moaned, and his lips moved against Heat's automatically, as if they knew what they were doing. His arms reached out, touched Heat's chest, felt his warmth through his combat suit.

The sounds Heat's lips made against his made Serph's cock strain painfully in his pants. He wanted Heat touching him. He didn't think—he just unzipped his pants, shoved them down, and began jerking himself.

Noticing this, Heat pulled back, chest heaving. His face was red, but he wasn't transforming. “What are you doing?” he demanded, looking at Serph's hands and his bared cock.

Serph paused, not sure how to reply.

Heat didn't speak with words. He just grabbed Serph, spun him around, pushed him down over the table, and pressed his own crotch against Serph's ass. When Serph felt Heat's erection press against the crevice, he made a breathy noise, pushing back against it.

“Is this what you wanted?” Heat muttered, and he pulled away for a moment. Serph heard the sound of rustling clothes, and then there was the fire-hot sensation of skin on skin, of Heat's dick pressing against his ass.

Serph wasn't sure if this was what he'd wanted. He hadn't even been sure what sex was, just, some deep part of his body had had a vague idea, along with a desire like hunger. But Heat's instincts had always been stronger. He wouldn't think. He would just know.

“Yes,” Serph answered with a moan, reaching down to stroke his own cock.

“Then you didn't have to waste your time talking,” Heat shot back, hands squeezing Serph's hips. “You just do it.”

“ _Yes,_ ” Serph moaned again, rocking his ass back against Heat's hips and his cock.

The first time Heat tried to enter him was dry and raw and hurt like hell. So then Heat spat on his hand, rubbing his dick to slick it a bit, and it went in a bit easier, but it still burned. Of course it would, with Heat. Serph had expected nothing less than pain, nothing less than aggressive pounding against his ass until he screamed. But the sound of Heat's panting growing ragged, his blatant desire filling and stretching him kept Serph hard. It wasn't quite what he'd dreamed of, but it was better, because it was real.

When Heat came inside him, Serph almost felt like he was devouring a part of Heat, in a small way. This probably wouldn't make him stronger. But the sensation of having a part of Heat inside of him filled a different type of hunger, and was enough to make him shudder into his own orgasm, splattering cum on the floor of the strategy room.

Heat spent a minute standing there behind him, panting. Serph wished he would lean forward so he could feel the full line of Heat's body against his back while Heat's cock still filled Serph's ass.

But Heat just pulled out and backed away. Serph was assaulted by a feeling emptiness, a feeling of loss, that hadn't been there before. He wanted Heat back, wanted his warmth back.

Serph pushed himself up with a wince—he was going to be hurting for a while—and felt the cum drip down his thighs, and he frowned a little. He wished he could have kept that inside him forever, made it part of himself.

Heat just tucked his cock away and did up his pants. “You're not just gonna stand there, are you?” was all he said, and then his eyes flicked down and away, and he circled the table to head to the door.

Serph still felt that emptiness, and now it was travelling up through his gut to his stomach and chest. He didn't know what to say. He looked down at the floor, and noticed that little wire heart had fallen out of his pocket onto the ground. Serph yanked up his pants over his sticky thighs and crouched down to pick up the wire heart and put it back in his pocket.

Heat was so close, close enough to reach out and touch, so then why did he feel as far as paradise?

_You shouldn't do it with someone you don't like._

Serph touched his lips with his fingertips, and they came away with a smear of blood on them.

_You'll know._

He did.

 


End file.
